Book 340 - Colored & Textured Amate Paper Guest Book - Blank Book - Japanese Stab Binding

I always love using amate paper, the bark paper made in Mexico. It can be picky, because it often cracks if you crease it, but I love the look and feel of it.

The piece I used for the cover of this guest book-journal was textured/sculpted into a design while the bark was still wet. Then, when it dried to form, it was painted with natural pigments. I bought this paper in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico last year.

For the back of the book, I used another piece of amate paper in a light color.

The guest book's pages are 80 lb cream-colored paper with a slight fleck. The top and bottom edges of the pages are hand torn for a more natural look.

The binding is a Japanese stab binding done with two colors of waxed cotton thread. At the top, I left the threads hanging and tied on two cylindrical carved bone buttons. I think they are the perfect complement to the paper.

I will always be looking for ways to use this luscious bark paper. It takes me back to Mexico and gives anything I make with it a rich, rustic, earthy feel.

Book 333 - Recycled Bubble Mailer Journal w/ Duct Tape - Japanese Stab Binding

Where e'er my eye falleth, there I see books! Today, we got a DVD in the mail, a promotional film for a tourist attraction here in Arizona. Tonight, while setting the table, I noticed the bubble mailer it came in was sitting there. Hmmm, nice size. Already folded over. Padded. BOOK!

I cut the envelope open and started taping the cut edges with leopard print duct tape. I was going to leave part of the white envelope showing but changed my mind because that leopard print was just too cool. So I covered the whole thing inside and out. It did add a nice rigidity to the book while still keeping the nice cushiony feel to it form the bubble wrap inside. I cut a pile of light beige paper to fit and clamped the block inside the book cover. Punched holes through the whole thing and bound it with black waxed linen thread in a typical Japanese stab binding stitch.

I knew I had a sort of African-y looking bone bead somewhere, so I left longish threads at the top edge. It took a while to find the bead, but finally I tied it on and called this one done.

Book 326 - A Little Jotter/Notebook for Sitting in Starbucks - Recycled Cup Holder - Stab Binding

With no computer, I've been spending a lot of time in Starbucks, where I can connect my Kindle on their wi-fi connection. So the last time I picked up one of the cardboard cup holders there, I realized... of course... that I had another book in my hands.

The ubiquitous green mermaid on brown kraft paper was a simple one to do. I just cut the cup holder in two pieces and glued them to some gold card stock for extra stability. I traced the curved shape of the covers to make a pattern and cut out a bunch of pages from "grande latte" colored text paper. I stacked the pieces up and clamped it with binder clips so I could punch holes along the spine edge.

I stitched the little notebook using a classic Japanese stab binding with brown waxed cotton thread. Pretty cool little book, and you'd probably get some attention if you pulled it out in a Starbucks to jot down an idea or a phone number.

(I sometimes can't help but wish they were all this quick and easy. I don't seem to be very good at doing quick and easy. I start out that way, then I have to complicate things. Hours later, I beat myself up for not just doing QUICK AND EASY!)

Boom 308 - "Danger in the Desert" - Recycled Children's Book Journal/Notebook - Soft Double Spiral Binding

Here's Another Vintage Kid's Book transformed into a blank book/journal. I enjoy making these recycled book journals. At least I know I am giving new life to a previously loved but worn book.

I love the cover on this one. It's a young adult book called "Danger in the Desert," with a great vintage graphic of two boys fighting the snake so big it looks more like an Anaconda you'd find in the Amazon rain forest than any critter I've ever seen here in our Arizona desert. But since there's a prickly pear in the foreground and a giant saguaro cactus in the background, I have to assume that Arizona is where it's meant to be.

The usual drill here: I cut the covers from the spine and glued down end papers of dark card stock. I bound the cut edges of the covers with washi tape. I folded up the sigs, plain white text paper, and poked the holes for the sewing stations.

The binding is like a Japanese stab binding but without a hinged or folded cover. It's basically a double spiral binding, but with ribbon instead of wire. You sew down the spine in a spiral from top to bottom with the ribbon, then sew back up again, creating a cross-stitch pattern. The trick is to not get the stitches too tight (or the book won't open flat) or too loose (or the book will be floppy).

This one worked out well.

Book 307 - Christmas Guest Book- Recycled Placemat - Side Binding with Ribbon

Posting a little late for Christmas, but I did make this before Christmas. I just didn't have a working computer to post it. This side-bound guest book is made from a recycled placemat (or rather half a placemat) I found in Pier I on sale. It's some weird felted fiber, but I really don't have a clue as to what.

I cut the placemat in two lengthwise, cutting carefully around the flower shapes. Then I glued that onto a piece of heavy green card stock for a backing. Then I carefully cut the card stock backing to the shape of the flowered placemat. I cut plain white text paper to size, added a couple pieces of dark green paper for end papers, then punched two holes for the ribbon. I threaded the red ribbon through the covers and the pages and tied it in a knot, then a bow.

I added another pair of ribbons at the fore edge to tie the book shut.

Pretty simple really. This was one of those times I saw the placemat in the store and grabbed it, knowing exactly what I was going to do with it when I got it home. I usually have to live with these things for awhile, then stare at them awhile longer, before they tell me what they want to be. With this one i just knew immediately.

Book 305 - A Tiny Notebook/Jotter from Recycled Packaging - Top Tobacco Book - Ribbon side Binding

Recycling 'R' Us - Here's a piece cut from a box that held a dozen pouches of Top brand rolling tobacco.

I cut the pieces and backed them with some colored stiff black card stock. I scored the front cover well with the point of a bone folder to create a hinge for the Japanese stab binding/side binding. After cutting white text paper to size and punching the stitching station holes, I bound the little notebook/jotter in a cross stitch pattern with narrow red ribbon.

It's a silly little thing, but it would be a handy quick jotter to carry in a purse or pocket, good for jotting down shopping lists, phone numbers and random ideas you don't want to escape.

And it counts as a book for a day.

Book 303 - Parcheesi - Recycled Game Board Guest Book/Journal - Japanese Stab Binding - Herrringbone Stitch

I love doing these recycled game board journals or guest books. The graphics on them are often so cool. For this one, I used a classic Parcheesi board--a game I loved playing when I was a kid. There was also this way cool graphic of some Turkish sheik-looking guy on the box. I wanted to use him, so I copied him and glued him onto the board.

I cut the board so that the board fold would form the hinge in the front cover. I bound all the cut edges with washi tape. The pages are camel-colored text paper cut to size. After drilling the holes through the covers and block, I bound it in a japanese stab binding using black waxed cotton thread in a herringbone stitch. Since the cover had those natural black stripes, I just followed the pattern. I like the way it came out.

Book 271 - The Waltz - Japanese Stab Bound Storybook from Blue Shop Towels

Another pretty silly book for you. But first, the genesis...

I was looking around the studio trying to decide what to make a book out of when my eye landed on... a roll of blue shop towels. If you've never used them (and you should; they're great), they are extra thick, soft and very absorbent blue paper towels. The operative word there is paper towels. Paper, as in what books are commonly made of.

So I had my material; now I just needed to decide how to use it. I became captivated with the idea of these towels' extreme absorbency and wanted to use that as a motif throughout the book. Played around with variations on the word "absorb," even cracking the thesaurus for ideas. And the more I played with the words, the more they started to turn into a story, or a vignette from a romance tale.

       I'll tell you a secret (come close. I'm whispering). I used to write historical romance novels, 
       most of them set in the Regency period. So writing this sort of stuff came pretty easy to me.

The final result was an 18-page story I hand-wrote on pages cut from blue shop towels and bound with a Japanese stab binding with goldenrod yellow linen thread. The cover is simple brown card stock. Each page of the story has one variation of the word "absorb" in it somewhere. The text was written with a fine-tip black marker so the ink would absorb into the page.

The "dedication" of the book calls it a homage to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, he of the "It was a dark and stormy night" fame. His style has become synonymous with bad writing. There's even an annual Bulwer-Lytton contest to see who can write the worst opening paragraphs for a story. So I was trying really hard to write this badly. I'm pretty sure I succeeded. Below, after the photos, I'll copy the entire text of this charming little tale for those who care to punish themselves with it. BUT Caution: If you hate bad writing, just pass on this.

This is not really much of a book. The cover is particularly awful because it won't lie flat. It looks sort of like a camp project. But I did get to try out the material, and it does fill up a day's book requirement.

OK, for those of you still with me, here it is....

The Waltz -- An Absorbing Tale

(In homage to Edward George Bulwer-Lytton)

The ball was crowded and merry and noisy, the dancers fully absorbed in flirting, flashing, dipping and swaying like mating peacocks. He would leave, he thought, leave this silliness behind. He turned to go.

The door across the room opened and she was there. A princess. A queen. A fairy so incandescently beautiful that she absorbed all the light in the room.

He blinked. His head buzzed. Silence fell, though he could see the musicians played still. But so absorbed was he in his enchantment, so ensorcelled by her beauty, that he saw, heard, smelled nothing else. Only her.

The music rose, breaking the spell, setting him free from his immobilized absorption long enough to think.  To know he must get closer. To her.

He edged slowly in her direction, softly, the noise around them absorbing the slight swish of his feet on the dance floor. She heard nothing as he drew near.

She was surrounded by lovesick swains, all of them fully absorbed in rapturous reverence, composing bad sonnets to her beauty and intoning them in their high-pitched, nasal, whiny voices.

He frowned. Young puppies. He knew they were, in truth, more in love with their love, more absorbed in their own emotions than in the flesh and blood of her. The real woman.

Close now, just behind her, he leaned toward her, breathed in, absorbing the delicate scent of her perfume. A heady aura of lilacs and lemongrass assaulted his senses.

He closed his eyes. He breathed. So absorbed in the magic of her scent, of her aura, of her, he almost forgot himself. He shook himself from her exotic spell, stepped forward and bowed.

"My waltz, I believe," he intoned, reaching out to her.
She blinked, smiled,  began to glow.
"Why yes," she said in a voice so lovely he thought she must have absorbed the music and made it sing back out of her mouth. "It is."

Everyone and everything else disappeared. The air absorbed the yapping voices of the putrid puppies trying to adore her. They simply disintegrated, leaving only her. And him. Them. He placed his arm around her waist. She placed her small hand in his. They began to waltz.

They danced as one, not thinking, never counting. Simply moving. As one. The music absorbed all thought and movement, digested it and sent it out again to flow in perfect harmony and synchronicity as they glided across the floor.

They gazed deeply into each other's eyes, two souls absorbed in the magic of becoming one. Lilting, swaying, almost swooning, they waltzed on. The silk of her gown whispered to him. The beat of her heart whispered too. He answered its song with his own.

Alas, the music ended, fading to a sigh, then to silence. Slowly, the world came back into focus, piercing their total absorption with each other. Other dancers, musicians, chandeliers, colors and sounds became real again. But still they stood. And smiled... secret smiles meant only for two.

"Gillian." A voice. A cruel, intrusive voice to speak the name of such a piece of heaven. A man, a monster, who was now glaring with focused absorption on the angel. "We are leaving now," the monster said and put out his hand.

And with a whispered, almost silent, "Thank you," she turned away, took that ugly hand, lifted her chin and walked away, leaving him with nothing but the scent of lilacs and lemongrass, trying to absorb the essence of her into his very pores.

He sagged. She was gone. No. It could not be. It must not be. He would not allow it. He WOULD see her again. He had absorbed her spirit into his soul. They were one now.

He would see her again.

AAAAaaaagh!

Book 248 - Little Blue Notebook w Chinese Paper - Japanese Stab Binding

I made this little notebook so I could use some odd paper my sister picked up in Vancouver's Chinatown. (Also because I was tired and it's easy, but don't tell anyone.)

I have no idea what the pierced cream-colored paper is for. But it was intriguing. The weight and texture are like a two-sheet paper towel after you've peeled off one layer. I liked the cut-outs and wanted to show them off with some contrast, so I opted to put a piece of solid color paper under each sheet, The colors alternate bright red and royal blue. I cut the question mark from red paper and glued it down.

The covers are cut from a heavy, canvas-textured card stock. After wrapping it around the block, I clamped everything together neatly and drilled the holes for the stitching. The traditional Japanese stab binding is done with narrow navy blue ribbon.

This is kind of a silly book. It has no purpose at all and would not be practical for much of anything. But I think it's cute. And it got me to finish my book for the day.

 

Book 194 - Scrabble Board Double-Faced Journal/Sketchbook - Japanese Stab Binding

Here's another game board book--the ever popular Scrabble. It's a double-faced Japanese stab bound blank journal/sketchbook with nice thick pages that will take pencil, charcoal, markers and other mostly dry media. (I've been playing Scrabble online lately with my friend Irene, who roundly trounces me 3 games out of 4--at lest--so it's been on my mind).

I cut the game board so that the fold in the middle would serve as the hinge for the Japanese stab binding, but then I realized that the board on the back of the book would be upside down. So I decided to put a third piece of book board in the center. That center board divides the book into two connected books and whichever side of the book is facing up is the "cover" of its own half of the book. It's sort of like a stab-bound version of a dos-a-dos book. It's easier to get the idea from the photos, especially #3, than from words.

The binding is done with very dark navy blue satin ribbon in a tortoise-shell stitch pattern. I like this stitch because it looks fairly sophisticated but is really easy to do. The hardest part is getting the holes lined up exactly right. I used vintage Scrabble tiles to spell out the words "good ideas" on one side and "true dreams" on the other. They're glued on with E6000 and they're definitely not going anywhere.

Even though the Scrabble tile thing has really been overdone the last few years, I still think it's a pretty nifty little book. I'm working on a couple of other Scrabble board books too that I'll likely post in the next couple of days.

Book 190-Japanese Stab Bound Album/Sketchbook

Here's another Asian themed Japanese Stab Binding similar to the one from a few days ago. The pages are full-sized 8 1/2"x11" cardstocl so that this could work as a photo album, a sketchbook or a journal.

The covers are davey bookbinders board covered with a really pretty decorative paper in a raspberry color embossed with gold butterflies. The spine is covered with black bookcloth. The binding is done with variegated ribbon. It seemed just a tad plain so I added three Chinese coins as an accent.

I could make these books all day long. Simple, elegant and pretty.

Book 187 - A Pretty Asian Album/Sketchbook/Scrapbook-Japanese Stab Binding

With this pretty Japanese stab-bound album, finally, I'm back to posting! And how good it feels. It sucks when you have to take a medication to counteract the side-effects of another medication. I'm about to start weaning myself off both of them. But I do feel better, thank goodness. And thanks for all your kindnesses while I was recuperating.

I'll be posting several books today, some of the ones I've been making since my last post. I will post more of them tomorrow. That should catch me up.

This is a really pretty, large sketchbook/album with a Japanese stab binding. The covers are made of davey board covered with decorative bamboo-pattern paper on the front and green mulberry paper on the back. The spine is covered in a beautiful green/gold chambray bookcloth. There is a thin strip of bamboo under the tortoise-shell stitch binding, which is done with olive green ribbon. The front is embellished with a piece of Japanese text (poetry, I think) on a torn piece of dark green unryu paper. The pages are 8 1/2"x11" peach colored text paper with a velvet finish.

Really a lovely book, if I say it who shouldn't.